Blockchain and the Law
Blockchains are being used to create smart contracts, expedite payments, make financial instruments, organize the exchange of data and information, and facilitate interactions between humans and machines. But by cutting out the middlemen, they run the risk of undermining governmental authorities’ ability to supervise activities in banking, commerce, and the law. As Blockchain and the Law makes clear, technology cannot be harnessed productively without new rules and new approaches to legal thinking.
Praise for Blockchain and the Law
“[It] attempts to do for blockchain what the likes of Lawrence Lessig and Tim Wu did for the Internet and cyberspace―explain how a new technology will upend the current legal and social order. A fine, deeply-researched book that can be expected to show up on law school syllabi for years to come. blockchain and the law is not just a theoretical guide. It’s also a moral one.”
― Jeff John Roberts, Fortune
“Blockchain and the Law perfectly links technical understanding with practical and legal implications. blockchains will matter crucially; this book, beautifully and clearly written for a wide audience, powerfully demonstrates how.”
― Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law School
“Useful to an educated readership…If you…don’t ‘get’ crypto, this is the book-length treatment for you. It sees merit and potential in crypto, without buying into any particular claim just for the sake of hype.”
― Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
“De Filippi and Wright stress that because blockchain is essentially autonomous, it is inflexible, which leaves it vulnerable, once it has been set in motion, to the sort of unforeseen consequences that laws and regulations are best able to address.”
― James Ryerson, New York Times Book Review
“If you are looking to understand the intricacies of the relationship between the law and blockchain technology, then this book should be on your list. [It] makes it clear that regulators must redefine their approach because restrictive regulations will stifle the growth of the industry.”
― Alexander Lielacher, BTCManager